‫بسم هللا الرحمن الرحيم‬

Assignment: 02
Course: physical chemistry
Submitted To: Respected Prof. Khizar
Qureshi
Submitted By: Fajar Emman Asmat
ID:19002067-011
Semester: 4 Batch-002
th

Department of Chemistry, Sialkot

Topic: eigenfunctions, eigenvalues &
examples
 EIGENFUNCTIONS
In mathematics, eigenfunction of linear operator D defined on some function space is any non-
zero function f in that space that, when acted upon by D, is only multiplied by some scaling
factor called eigenvalue. As an equation, this condition can be written as
Df = λf
for some scalar eigenvalue λ. The solutions to this equation may also be subject to boundary
conditions that limit allowable eigenfunctions.
An eigenfunction is a type of eigenvector.
An eigenvector of linear operator D defined on some vector space is nonzero vector in domain of
D that, when D acts upon it, is simply scaled by eigenvalue. In the special case where D is
defined on function space, eigenvectors are referred to as eigenfunctions. That is, function f is an
eigenfunction of D if it satisfies the equation
Df = λf
Because of boundary conditions, the possible values of λ are generally limited, for example to a
discrete set λ1, λ2, … or to continuous set over some range. The set of all possible eigenvalues of
D is sometimes called its spectrum, which may be discrete, continuous, or a combination of both.
Each value of λ corresponds to one or more eigenfunctions. If multiple linearly independent
eigenfunctions have same eigenvalue, eigenvalue is said to be degenerate & max. number of
linearly independent eigenfunctions associated with same eigenvalue is eigenvalue's degree of
degeneracy/geometric multiplicity.

Derivative Example
A widely used class of linear operators acting on infinite dimensional spaces are differential
operators on space C∞ of infinitely differentiable real or complex functions of real or complex
𝑑
argument t. For example, consider the derivative operator 𝑑𝑡 with eigenvalue equation
𝑑
f(t) = λf(t)
𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑡
By multiplying both sides by 𝑓(𝑡) and integrating. Its sol., the exponential function
f(t) = f₀eλt
is the eigenfunction of the derivative operator, where f 0 is a parameter that depends on boundary
conditions. Note that in this case the eigenfunction is itself a function of its associated eigenvalue
λ, which can take any real or complex value. In particular, note that for λ = 0 the eigenfunction
f(t) is a constant.
𝑑𝑓
Suppose in the example that f(t) is subject to boundary conditions f(0) = 1 and 𝑑𝑡 │t = 0
f(t) = e2t
where λ = 2 is the only eigenvalue of differential equation that also satisfies boundary condition.

Link to eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices

Eigenfunctions can be expressed as column vectors & linear operators can be expressed as
matrices, although they may have infinite dimensions. As a result, many of the concepts related
to eigenvectors of matrices carry over to the study of eigenfunctions.
Define the inner product in the function space on which D is defined as
integrated over some range of interest for t called Ω. The * denotes the complex conjugate.
Suppose the function space has an orthonormal basis given by the set of functions {u1(t), u2(t),
…, un(t)}, where n may be infinite.

EIGENVALUES
Eigenvalues are the special set of scalars associated with the system of linear equations. It is
mostly used in matrix equations. ‘Eigen’ is a German word that means ‘proper’ or
‘characteristic’. Therefore, the term eigenvalue can be termed as characteristic value,
characteristic root, proper values or latent roots as well. In simple words, the eigenvalue is a
scalar that is used to transform the eigenvector. The basic equation is
Ax = λx
The number or scalar value “λ” is an eigenvalue of A.
In Mathematics, an eigenvector corresponds to the real non zero eigenvalues which point in the
direction stretched by the transformation whereas eigenvalue is considered as a factor by which it
is stretched. In case, if the eigenvalue is negative, the direction of the transformation is negative.
For every real matrix, there is an eigenvalue. Sometimes it might be complex. The existence of
the eigenvalue for the complex matrices is equal to the fundamental theorem of algebra.

EigenValue Example
In this shear mapping, the blue arrow changes direction, whereas the pink arrow does not. Here,
the pink arrow is an eigenvector because it does not change direction. Also, the length of this
arrow is not changed; its eigenvalue is 1.
 EXAMPLES
Example 1 Find all the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the following BVP.

y′′+λy=0 y(0)=0 y(2π)=0

Let’s take a look at another example with slightly different boundary conditions.

Example 2 Find all the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the following BVP.
y′′+λy=0 y′(0)=0 y′(2π)=0

So, in the previous two examples we saw that we generally need to consider different cases
for λλ as different values will often lead to different general solutions. Do not get too locked into
the cases we did here. We will mostly be solving this particular differential equation and so it
will be tempting to assume that these are always the cases that we’ll be looking at, but there are
BVP’s that will require different cases.

Let’s take a look at another example with a very different set of boundary conditions. These are
not the traditional boundary conditions that we’ve been looking at to this point, but we’ll see in
the next chapter how these can arise from certain physical problems.

Example 3 Find all the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the following BVP.
y′′+λy=0 y(−π) =y(π) y′(−π) =y′(π)

Once again, we’ve got an example with no negative eigenvalues. We can’t stress enough that this
is more a function of the differential equation we’re working with than anything and there will be
examples in which we may get negative eigenvalues.

To this point we’ve only worked with 1 differential equation so let’s work example with
different differential equation just to make sure that we don’t get too locked into this one
differential equation.

Before working this example let’s note that we will still be working the vast majority of our
examples with the one differential equation we’ve been using to this point. We’re working with
other differential equation just to make sure that we don’t get too locked into using 1 single
differential equation.

Example 4 Suppose now u(x, t) represents temp. of thin, insulated, wire ring of circumference 1.
The spatial variable x represents arclength along the ring, measured widdershins
(counterclockwise). We’ve periodic boundary conditions

u(0, t) = u(1, t),

and ux(0, t) = ux(1, t).

With the initial temperature distribution f, we have the initial boundary value problem
We set u(x, t) = T(t)X(x),

and obtain T’(t) = λkT(t), (5)

and

for some constant λ. If we set L = D2 ,

and define the linear boundary operators B1X = X(0) − v(1),

And B2X = X’ (0) − v 0 (1),

(P3) becomes

REFERENCES
• Differential Equations - Eigenvalues and Eigenfunctions (lamar.edu)
• Eigenfunction - Wikipedia